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Civil Liberties


"I voted against the Patriot Act because I read it."  -  Dennis

 

Dennis believes in safeguarding the civil liberties of all Americans. Just 45 days after the September 11, 2001 attacks, President Bush rammed the "PATRIOT Act" through Congress.  Dennis has taken a leadership role in opposing it. This law poses an unprecedented threat to Americans' individual freedoms and is a violation of our civil liberties. We need to get the government out of our bedrooms, financial records, and medical records.

The only way to stop these unconstitutional infringements on basic American freedoms is to revoke the excessive powers the PATRIOT Act has granted the government. 

We need to eliminate the PATRIOT Act's subjective search-and-seizure provision, unwarranted incarcerations, and take away the authority of federal officials to search our private records without probable cause. We need to protect the fundamental right of attorney-client privilege, revoke various Department of Justice secrecy orders, and repeal provisions harmful to the rights of immigrants.
 
Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." The "PATRIOT Act" is not what American patriots fought and died for. As Americans, we cannot allow fearmongering to lead us to a place where we abandon our most precious traditions.

"We've created a national security state which threatens our Constitution and weakens our basic liberties. This is not about whether you're Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, but whether we can actually realize that we have been sold a bill of goods, lies about WMDs, and questions about the nature of an anthrax attack, which caused us all too willingly to limit our civil liberties."  -  Dennis